This morning I had a very long lucid dream, I didn't look at the clock but I sense it must have lasted at least 30-40 minutes in real time.

It began by talking to my mum, who lives back in the UK and I am going to visit her soon. She asks how it's possible that we are here together now and I explain that I'm having a "flash forward" (I've been watching the TV shows Flash Forward and LOST a lot lately). Then I go on to say that this is all possible because I am dreaming... at which point I become fully lucid and wander off (sorry mum!)

I stabilize the dream and move through the landscape which is a rugged-looking holiday resort, with pools and jungle and rocky parts. Eventually I emerge at the top of a rocky cliff and am surrounded by clouds. I dare myself to jump into the clouds and free-fall, even though I have no idea what lies below....

I jump through, and emerge through the ceiling of a mansion, swinging from the chandelier. Below me are all sorts of wild safari animals running around the house: lions, wilder beast, jaguars, deer. I am lucid and in control of my own actions but the animals... they're doing their own thing. And just as I have a worrying thought - what if one of the lions jump up and snap at me - of course it then happens!

I fly around the ceiling of the mansion, trying to shake the lion who has his jaws around my leg. 'This isn't fun,' I think and make a conscious choice to change the scene. I wouldn't call it a lucid nightmare because I was able to free myself easily enough but it certainly wasn't anything I'd conjure up on purpose! This feeling of letting the dream run its course, I call this passive lucid dreaming, because you're not really taking an active role but you still know you're dreaming so it's very rich and intense.

Kicking free, I fly out the window (I smash the glass in doing so!) and remember my lucid dream intention: to seek out a reliable dream guide - a figure who can be a direct channel to my subconscious and help me achieve more with my dream time. I hope this person becomes a regular part of my lucid dreams, kind of an anchor for when things get confusing or need direction, a bit like now. So I want the dream guide to be the right figure and I have the feeling it might take a while for them to establish themselves.

I say 'let's find my dream guide' and the scene switches to a shopping mall and I suddenly have an identical twin walking beside me. She isn't the guide, but she's going to take me to him. Then I notice a cake shop. Impulsively, I run in and grab a piece of chocolate cake.... why not? It was goddamn delicious!

Returning to my quest, I left the shop and followed my twin into a room which turns out to be a nurse's office and there is a man lying on the table. This is my dream guide. I think. He is blond and in his 30s but not exactly familiar - more like a mash-up of Dexter (from Dexter) and Jacob (from Dexter/LOST). I think my TV habits left a major impression on my lucid dream...

After a few moments, he says he wants to work with my twin but not me, which annoys me no end! I take her out of the room and demand she switch tops with me. As I change, I catch my reflection in the mirror and remember the mirror experiment, so I give it another go. It's very odd; everything looks perfectly normal and clear except for my teeth (of which I only have 3 remaining) and my eyes which are all weird - my pupil is in the shape of the moon. I look away and back again. Now I grin manically. My teeth are still all messed up and my eyeballs are all shrunken and they really hurt when I look at them.

I leave the mirror and go back into the nurse's office pretending to be my twin. But there is no fooling the man - after all, he is my own subconscious!! He tells me to leave...

At this point I am frustrated by my lack of progress with my guide. In hindsight I was putting way too much pressure on myself to find a dream guide. This isn't the first time I've tried to seek out a recurring player. I'm starting to think it just doesn't work like that. Ultimately, I already know I can turn to any character in the dream (even the dream itself) and ask for guidance and that will yield answers. My need for a constant 'imaginary friend' in my dreams is probably far too logical and literal for the dreaming mind.

After that I swan off into the outdoor mall and start flying around. In the same vein as my passive lucid dream earlier I let the dream take over and become engaged in a funny plot which I can't even put into words now, it just wouldn't make any sense - strings and paint and creating murals is the most logical impression I have of it now. My lucid dream would have gone on longer if my dog hadn't woken me up, but I let it slip away after that and didn't go back in.

Personally i've never tried to make a recurring character something in my dream, but it seems like a reasonable possibility. What if you decide what, or who you want to be your dream guide and establish within the dream realm what it is? Like, for example, you chose Dexter to be your dream guide. "Dexter, you are my dream guide!"

Every time you see Dexter from that point on he would, assuming it worked, have the association as the dream guide, no? Regardless of what works, it sounds like that was an awesome dream. Just be glad you didn't lose a foot to that lion

Seto_Blade wrote:What if you decide what, or who you want to be your dream guide and establish within the dream realm what it is? Like, for example, you chose Dexter to be your dream guide. "Dexter, you are my dream guide!"

Every time you see Dexter from that point on he would, assuming it worked, have the association as the dream guide, no? Regardless of what works, it sounds like that was an awesome dream. Just be glad you didn't lose a foot to that lion

This was my original thinking but trying to summon a specific dream figure just made them more elusive! But maybe I have some kind of mental block stopping it from happening... Beliefs are powerful, both in waking life and the dream world. My next intention is to ask a dream figure - any one that will talk to me LOL - and see what they say about dream guides.